


Till the End of Our World

by koi_ling



Series: Nothing Is Gonna Take You from My Side [10]
Category: Winner (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Feelings, Gen, this is the end mY FRIEND
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 14:34:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10788669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koi_ling/pseuds/koi_ling
Summary: Ten years old. A school trip.





	Till the End of Our World

That day, the sides of the road are an explosion of colours: wildflowers fill every untouched patch of land with rich yellows and bright reds, and spring is at its utmost. Their bus is brimming with laughter and rhymes they keep muttering between their teeth. It feels very festive, and very sensational – a party like no others.

Seungyoon really likes spring. He likes the days growing longer, the air getting warmer, the streets going back to full vibrant colours instead of dull greyness, and most of it he likes that he can play outside without his mom worrying he might get sick. He’s a bit on the weak side when it comes to colds and losing his voice in the middle of winter, so this mild weather is always a welcomed change.

Mino is asleep next to him – he wonders how he can actually do that with all the noise – and his head is leaning on his shoulder. Seungyoon thinks he looks very funny with his mouth agape and the smear of chocolate on his left cheek. Like always, he makes him smile. Mino is his favourite among all the kids in his class, he’s his favourite among the kids of their condo, he’s his favourite after his mom.

Seungyoon is very content. He doesn’t really feel the need to join the games they’re playing two rows ahead, or to sing the rhymes the girls are reciting at the back of the bus. He likes it here: his window seat with Mino’s head on his shoulders, wildflowers on the sides of the road, like adornments to their common joy and excitement.

He sings a melody he has in mind, something he can’t quite put aside like the rest of his thoughts. He sings it to Mino only, a whisper to his ear, hoping it will give him sweet dreams.

 

 

The zoo is huge and exciting for several reasons, but Seungyoon finds it even funnier because of Mino. He won’t tell the teachers he is frightened of everything that moves and isn’t human, to the point he’ll pretend he’s absolutely fine with petting the crown of a giraffe’s head when he’s actually shaking his legs in fear. Seungyoon has to volunteer when they ask Mino if he wants to have a snake around his neck – it feels weird, its smooth cold skin over him, but Seungyoon is not really scared of such things.

Seungyoon makes fun of him when they’re alone, off to the animal farm area, telling Mino he’s a chicken of the worst species. He likes to see that Mino isn’t really upset by the direct question when it’s a friend asking. He confirms he’s a scared cat and Seungyoon finds it so refreshing – even if they’re young and usually blunt about things, he finds it difficult to see other kids admitting such weaknesses so openly, even to friends. They would usually try to gloss over it, like bad copies of adults lying about how strong they are; but Mino is not like that.

He’s honest when Seungyoon is not. He’s all about it, so straightforward in his likes and dislikes, so hot-headed when something really annoys him, and so sincere in his tears and uncertainties. Seungyoon knows that when some older kid bothers Mino he won’t hesitate running to his mother and tell her about it, without shame for being picked out as a victim, without any worry of sounding too spineless. He doesn’t mind at all.

Seungyoon envies that. He’s not able to do that with his mom, he is not able to speak about what upsets him, about that time a kid stole his lunch or the other time he felt a tang of pain for a bad grade. He won’t say it at loud but work harder until he perfections it, until he reaches his own goal and he’ll see a smile on his mom’s face. He needs to set everything in order so that he’ll feel safe, be sure of every little detail before he takes a step.

If Mino is all smooth straight lines, Seungyoon is a curve that bends inward over and over again.

“You aren’t scared of it, not even one bit?” Mino inquires so seriously as Seungyoon feeds a goat some grass. They have freaky eyes, goats, their pupils stretching in width instead of length, but he doesn’t say it.

“There must be someone brave between us, don’t you think?” he jokes instead and Mino just laughs at it with much sincerity in his eyes. It feels warm, Seungyoon thinks, so warm inside that he almost feels like suffocating. Seungyoon wants to experience it over and over again, that kind of happiness that clutches at his chest and doesn’t let go, taking control of him all of sudden.

Seungyoon also thinks that Mino is the brave one between them, for the way he’s living. It takes so much to be that honest, to smile that brightly. He guess maybe one day he’ll tell him, when they’re older, when he finds the courage to be just like him and talk about things instead of keeping them for himself. He’s sure he’ll grow up to be better, to be stronger than the Seungyoon he is now – or he hopes so.

Maybe when he’s there, he’ll be able to be just like Mino, and never back off when sincerity is needed. Maybe he’ll be able to reach him.

 

 

Mino falls asleep on his shoulder once more, while they’re coming home. Their bus is quiet now – they are all tired for the long day spent at the zoo, the fresh air and bright sun just finishing the deal. Seungyoon can hear someone snoring somewhere in the back.

He can’t close his eyes at all, too lost in a sensation that transfixes him in that moment and place. It feels infinite, in that instant when everyone is too preoccupied to notice they’re all alive and breathing. It hits him so strongly he just can’t move a toe – the fact he’s there, and Mino with him, and he’s coming home after one of the best days of his short life. The fact that he’s really happy because Mino makes him laugh so much, and he really loves to play when it’s with him, and Seungyoon doesn’t want it to end at all. He doesn’t want to grow up, not even for one instant, and lose this moment to the weight of many others.

Seungyoon whispers in Mino’s ear with the greedy jealousy of his ten years: _let’s stay like this forever_. He says it to Mino only, hoping it will stick with him. He feels entitled, because they’re best friends and they’re gonna be for the rest of their lives.

Seungyoon believes so.

**Author's Note:**

> goodbye series, i loved you dearly.


End file.
